The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman by Sigmund Freud

1872 Words4 Pages

In "The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman", Freud discusses a case of a young woman brought to him by her parents for treatment as a homosexual. Although he states that Psychoanalysis is not truly a tool for curing homosexuality, but one to help those with inner conflict in one particular area or another, he attempts to study the girl to see if Psychoanalysis could be of any help to her. Once he realized that the girl had a deep rooted bitterness towards men, he called off his study of her and told her parents that if they were to seek more psychoanalysis for her it should be sought from a woman. Prior to this discovery he found a few things of interest that may have attributed to her choice of sexual object.

One of the first things Freud thought about was whether the patient was a homosexual from birth or whether she changed her object choice later in life. At the time it was thought that homosexuals had characteristics (physical a psychical) of the opposite sex. Though there were a few of these found in the girl, they were not strong enough to count for much. She was tall like her father and her features were sharper rather than soft and feminine, but she was still a beautiful and well developed girl. As far as psychical characteristics that were more masculine, he listed sharp comprehension, and objectivity in that her passion did not have complete control over her. Still there were women at the time who had traits such as these and were not homosexual.

The characteristic the girl displayed that was the most manly, however, was the way she acted and thought in regards to the Lady she was in love with. The girl preferred to think of herself as the lover, not the beloved. Simply being allowed to...

... middle of paper ...

... had been there for the birth of one of her brothers and it had not effected her. Yet when her second brother was born she completely switched her object choice. This could have been a coincidence, but I am of the school that says there are no coincidences. All things have reason behind them, somewhere.

Though Freud had issues with women which shaped his views on cases such as this one somewhat differently, he remained rather objective throughout. His reasoning behind the events that brought the girl to him made sound, logical sense. Even his reason for dumping this case and suggesting they take it up with a different psychoanalysist made a lot of sense. It is definitely more logical than pushing ahead against and almost un-budge-able brick wall build up of bitterness and resentment of men. All in all I was pretty impressed by a man who many bad mouth today.

Show More
Related

  • Fraud and Unjustified Conjectures in Dora An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria by Sigmund Freud

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    Freud starts his report by informing the readers of the incompleteness of his analysis and preparing them for a fragmented case. He admits that though the two dreams of Dora were recorded immediately after his session, “the case history itself was only committed to writing from memory, after the treatment was at an end […] thus the record is not absolutely – phonographically - exact” (4). Already, it becomes clear that the case will be based off of potentially invalid information. Freud attempts to defend this cause of skepticism by stating that the recollection remained fresh and heightened in his mind by his personal interest in the case (4). Freud clearly recognizes the opportunity for criticism due to the lack of information and accompanying lack of validity in his arguments, but he’s more intent on completing the report and proving his sexual desire and dream interpretat...

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Psychosocial Theories

    348 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sigmund Freud first theorized the psychosexual theory after studying a patients mental health. The theory states that a human develops from underlying unconscious motives in order to achieve sensual satisfaction.

    Read More

  • Theories Of Homosexuality

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    Freud has multiple known theories all describing the unconsciousness, the human defense mechanism, the clinical conversation between patients and psychoanalyst, and most prominently he discussed about sexual desire. He explained sexual desire as the key motivating energy for humans, and he discussed about its magnitude. On the same topic of sexual desire, Freud also discussed about homosexuality and how it’s acquired (Freud’s View of Homosexuality, 2013). Sigmund Freud discussed the concept of homosexuality as deterministic. According to Feud, human beings are born with unfocused sexual libidinal d...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Psychodynamic Approach

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Freud had alluded to homosexuality numerous times in his writings, and had concluded that paranoia and homosexuality were inseparable. Other psychiatrists wrote copiously on the subject, and homosexuality was “treated” on a wide basis. There was little or no suggestion within the psychiatric community that homosexuality might be conceptualized as anything other than a mental illness that needed to be treated. And, of course, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness in DSM-II. (The DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – is the APA’s standard classification of their so-called mental disorders, and is used by many mental health workers in the USA and other

    Read More

  • Heterosexuality And Homosexuality

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Freud's most important articles on homosexuality were written between 1905, when he published Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, and 1922, when he published "Certain Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia, and Homosexuality."[1] Freud believed that all humans were bisexual, by which he primarily meant that everyone incorporates aspects of both sexes, and that everyone is sexually attracted to both sexes. In his view, this was true anatomically and therefore also mentally and psychologically. Heterosexuality and homosexuality both developed from this original bisexual disposition.[2] As one of the causes of homosexuality Freud mentions the distressing heterosexual experience: "Those cases are of particular interest in which the libido changes over to an inverted sexual object after a distressing experience with a normal one."[3]

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud

    3569 Words  | 8 Pages

    Sigmund Freud was the first of six children to be born into his middle class, Jewish family. His father was a wool merchant, and was the provider for the family. From the time Freud was a child, he pondered theories in math, science, and philosophy, but in his teens, he took a deep interest in what he later called psychoanalysis. He wanted to discover how a person's mind works, so he began to explore the conscious and unconscious parts of one's psyche. Freud's parents and siblings were directly involved in allowing him to pursue this unexplored area of psychology. He was given his own room so that he could study his books in silence, and was only disturbed when it was time to eat. Freud eventually married Martha Bernays. She was cooperative and completely subservient to her husband. She was simply filling a role that the society during that time insisted was proper for all women. Freud himself derived his attitudes toward women and his beliefs about the roles of individual sexes from personal experiences in the strict culture of the time. In the middle to late eighteen hundreds, Central European society distinguished clearly between the roles of men and women. Cultural norms dictated that men be responsible for work outside of the home, and the financial well being of the family, while the women's responsibilities were in the home and with the children. With these specific gender roles came the assumption of male dominance and female submission. Females were pictured as serene, calm, creatures that were lucky to have the love and protection of their superior husbands. It is in this form of the family where most children first learn the meaning and practice of hierarchical, authoritarian rule. Here is where they l...

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

    2351 Words  | 5 Pages

    Freud originally attempted to explain the workings of the mind in terms of physiology and neurology ...(but)... quite early on in his treatment of patients with neurological disorders, Freud realised that symptoms which had no organic or bodily basis could imitate the real thing and that they were as real for the patient as if they had been neurologically caused. So he began to search for psychological explanations of these symptoms and ways of treating them.

    Read More

  • Freud and Dora

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    In doing this, some people see Freud as a pioneer in the science of psychoanalysis. However, Freud is far from what most people consider to be scientific in both his methods and the facts he uses as evidence. Freud applies his theories to Dora and her case of hysteria; but he does it in such a way that is very unscientific and as a result is not convincing.

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Approach vs. Humanistic Approach

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychoanalyst in the twentieth century whose studies and interests were focused on psychosexual behavior, psychosocial behavior, and the unconscious. He blames incestual desires and acts on neurosis and believes neurotics were victimized and molested in their youth. Congruently, this is his explanation for sexual urges in children. He watched psychiatrists fail at inventions of electrical and chemical treatments for mental disorders, only for them to turn to treatments that followed concepts of psychoanalysis. Even though drugs diminish symptoms of suffering he believed psychoanalytic or talking therapy would truly restore a patient’s self-esteem and welfare. As quoted by Ernst G. Beier:

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Psychoosexual Stages Of Personality

    1124 Words  | 3 Pages

    Personality, by definition, is the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual 's distinctive character. It is believed that the majority of a person’s personality is formed by the age of six and stays constant throughout their entire lives no matter the time or setting. Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that personality is developed in the five psychosexual stages and that everyone goes through the same stages in the same order. The five psychosexual stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Each of the psychosexual stages focus on a specific part of the body called the erogenous zones, which are area of the body that produce pleasure, and Freud believed that if an individual had either an overindulgence

    Read More

  • Drag Queen Essay

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lesser, Ronnie C., and Erica Schoenberg. That Obscure Subject of Desire: Freud's Female Homosexual Revisited. New York: Routledge, 1999. Print.

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Psychoosexual Development

    1724 Words  | 4 Pages

    Freud believed that humans develop through stages based on particular erogenous zones. Freud theorized that to gain a healthy personality as an adult, a person would have to successfully complete a certain sequence of five stages. Within the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed there would be major consequences if any stage was not completed successfully. The stages, in order, were the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. In general, Freud believed that an unsuccessful completion of any stage would make a person become fixated on that particular stage. The outcome would lead the person to either over indulge or under indulge the failed stage during adulthood. Freud truly believed that the outcomes of the psychosexual stages played a major part in the development of the human personality. Eventually, these outcomes would become different driving forces in every human being’s personality. The driving forces would determine how a person would interact with the world around them. The results from Freud’s theory about the stages of psychosexual development led Freud to create the concept of the human psyche; Freud’s biggest contribution to

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Sigmund Freud's Psychoosexual Stages Of Development

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sigmund Freud developed the psychosexual stages of development to describe the chronological process of development that took place from birth through later adulthood. The stages of psychosexual are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Freud developed that as children grow they progress from self-pleasing sexual activity to reproductive activity. Through this developmental process one will develop adult personality. Freud put much emphasis on sexual context of how ones libido, which is one sexual desires played a role in each stage of development. Freud emphasizes that individuals will strive to obtain pleasures in each stage of development, which becomes the basis of ones personality.

    Read More

  • Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    For Freud, psychosexual theory occurred when personality arises, as it tries to resolve conflicts between unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses and the societal demands to suppress these impulses. In general, psychoanalytic theorists are permeated with notions of human development, and how the child changes during the course of his maturation in an explicit and implicit perspective.

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud Essay

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Personally, I believe that Sigmund Freud was a very in depth person. His theories seem to be very accurate and well thought out. Being one of the first people to study this subject, I feel like he set a really good example to other psychologists. He is very interesting to learn about and there is so much more that I don’t even know about him.

    Read More

More about The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman by Sigmund Freud

Open Document